Cutting edge: Chromatin remodeling at the IL-4/IL-13 intergenic regulatoryregion for Th2-specific cytokine gene cluster

During the differentiation of naive Th cells into Th2 effector cells, the e ntire IL-4/IL-13 locus is remodeled into an accessible chromatin conformati on. Here we show that ectopic expression and activation of Stat6 or GATA-3 in Th cells developing under Th1-polarizing conditions lead to the inductio n of chromatin remodeling not only at the Ranking regions of the IL-4 and I L-13 genes but also at the IL-4/IL-13 intergenic regulatory region for the IL-4/IL-13/IL-5 gene cluster. Furthermore, we demonstrate that GATA-3 and a nother Th2-specific, inducible protein complex interact with the IL-4/IL-13 intergenic DNase I hypersensitive region specifically in Th2 cells.